Small observations of life's quirkiness and joy

April 1, 2012April 1, 2012

Taking it Outside

Today, March made its exit in even more glorious fashion than it made its entrance.
Oh my gosh, what a stunningly beautiful day.

I decided to take advantage of this little gift by taking my 5k training outside to a local county park.
I gotta tell ya, I was feeling pretty good about my progress after several weeks of running on an indoor track.
But I wasn’t terribly worried about taking my running to the trail, after all, I’d hiked there before. How different could it be?

Um, a lot.

Where I was used to running on the level surface in the regulated temperatures of the gym, today’s run presented all sorts of unfamiliar elements.
Element #1: inclines. Running up some of those hills tapped into muscles that I didn’t know existed.
Element #2: the sun. Bright. Hot. ‘Nuff said.
Element #3: nature. clearly I love nature. But the only scent I deal with at the gym is of the stinky boy kind. Twice on the trails today, I swear I smelled skunk.
Element #4: navigation. Track = run around the circle, run around the circle, run around the circle. Trail: check the frigging map and pay attention to the trail signage so you can remember how the heck to get back to the parking lot when your workout wraps up in the middle of the woods.

But the best part of getting back to my starting point? Rows and rows of lilac bushes. I stood there between the rows for the longest time after I finished running, just taking in that perfect scent. I also nodded to some sweet bleeding hearts along the way for good measure. All in all, a very worthwhile workout, even with its little weird lessons.